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Friday, June 7, 2013

Republicans Exploiting and Politicizing Health Care via the Plight of a 10 Year Old Girl!

Here’s a story my conservative friend in Milwaukee has been haranguing
me about for awhile now. So I looked it up, and
oops, he’s wrong again. Big surprise.

And the conservative source taking my Republican friend to
task for his reason to hate Obamacare? The National Review. No summary from me,
the story speaks for itself, but it does show how conservatives will try to
politicize everything, even the life of a ten year old girl:

Mona Charen: The parents of ten-year-old Sarah Murnaghan
have made her an Internet and cable-news celebrity in a desperate effort to get
her on the adult list for a lung

transplant is completely understandable.The story, however, has loosed a torrent of demagoguery —
some of it coming from the very people who should be most alarmed about the
politicization of cases like Sarah’s and of health care generally. Talk radio and TV have been ringing with strident and even
hysterical accusations that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is “letting this
little girl die,” or “choosing who will live and who will die.” Some are
linking Sebelius’s supposed callousness to the terrible, politicized rationing
of health care that Obamacare will inaugurate.This is all backwards. The people calling upon Sebelius to
intervene and grant a waiver from the usual rules regarding children and
transplants are the ones urging the politicization of medical care — at least
in this case. They would be the ones responsible for setting a terrible
precedent. The lesson would be this: If you can muster public pressure through
social media, the press, and politicians, your loved one can get an advantage
over others waiting for a lung or kidney or liver. Photogenic patients or those
with media-savvy or even politically well-connected relatives would go to the
head of the line. That is exactly what conservatives ought to fear.It may well be that the rules about eligibility for lung
transplants need an overhaul. As Sebelius noted, 222 people are waiting
for lung transplants in Sarah’s region alone, including six children aged ten
and younger. Nationally, about 1,700 people are waiting for lung transplants,
including 31 children ten and younger. Lung transplants are very high risk —
only 50 percent of recipients survive longer than five years.Deciding who among the desperately sick should get a lung or
other organ when they become available is managed by a nonprofit called the
United Network for Organ Sharing.

The following point made me think of time when an opponent of
Obamacare takes Sebelius’ place, and politicizes who gets treatment and who
doesn't…for real.

Sebelius has agreed to order a review of the policy that separates pediatric and adult cases, but those pressing her to help one particular patient are corrupting the system. This kind of politicization of medical care is one of the chief objections to Obamacare. Kathleen Sebelius isn’t in control of whether Sarah Murnaghan lives or dies. But if Obamacare is fully implemented, she and her successors will have such power over all of us.

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One Man's Challenge to a Party Bent on Destruction

Politics: Just a guy tired of "compromising." Stop encouraging Republicans when it comes to their failed ideology.
I was once a liberal radio talk host. Played co-host to Vicki McKenna, a complete liar who can't can't stop filling the airwaves with mindless babble.
I'm someone who enjoys the the painful smiles of conservatives as they struggle to deny the avalanche of facts tumbling their way. They seem preoccupied with spelling and grammar.
Real Estate: I also hosted a real estate radio show.
Currently dabbling in part time work.